Síndrome HELLP sobreposta a síndrome hemolítica-urêmica

A pregnancy complicated by typical hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets (HELLP) syndrome is reported. At 20 weeks of gestation, a case of HUS was diagnosed, with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli identified. Plasmapheresis allowed continuation of the pregnancy for 5 weeks. Superimposed preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome were diagnosed after the establishment of nephrotic range proteinuria, hypertension and recurrence of hemolysis. This is a singular case, as it demonstrates that HELLP syndrome can superimpose upon HUS, a fact that can impact future research on reproductive immunology. It also reminds clinicians that the overlapping of clinical and laboratory findings in HELLP syndrome makes the diagnosis of other thrombotic microangiopathies during pregnancy a clinical challenge.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Short and Extended Provocation Tests Have Similar Negative Predictive Value in Non-Immediate Hypersensitivity to Beta-Lactams in Children

Drug provocation tests (DPTs) are the gold-standard method to diagnose non-immediate hypersensitivity reactions (NIHSR) to beta-lactam antibiotics (BL) in children. Our aim was to compare the negative predictive value (NPV) of one-day (short) DPT versus 3-7 days (extended) DPT for the diagnosis of NIHSR to BL in paediatric age. A secondary aim was to compare confidence on drug re-exposure after short and extended negative DPTs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Research project SerpaFlora: valorization of native microbiota of the Serpa cheese

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhancing motivation and learning in engineering courses: a challenge-based approach to teaching embedded systems

This paper addresses an approach to teaching embedded systems programming through a challenge-based competition involving robots. This pedagogical project distinguishes itself by incorporating international students from three international institutions through the Blended Intensive Program (BIP). The research findings indicate that this approach yields excellent results regarding student engagement and learning outcomes. The challenge-based program effectively promotes students’ creative problem-solving abilities by combining theoretical instruction with hands-on experience in a competitive setting.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CeDRI (UIDB/05757/2020 and UIDP/05757/2020), SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021) and project LA/P/0063/2020. This work was supported by Blended Intensive Programme ID: 2021- 1-PT01-KA131-HED-000004268-2, Embedded Systems Applications. The authors thank CEFET/RJ, the Institute of Engineering and the Research Centre on Bio-based Economy of Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the ERASMUS program, and the Brazilian research agencies CAPES, CNPq, and FAPERJ.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inibição in vitro de Colletotrichum Musae, agente da antracnose da banana, por meio de agentes vegetais, biológicos e químicos.

A antracnose ( Colletotrichum musae) destaca-se entre as doenças que afetam a banana. Com objetivo de controlar esse patógeno, avaliou--se, em ensaio in vitro, a eficiência dos extratos e óleos essenciais de: Lippia sidoides Cham., Caryophillus aromaticus L. e Eucalyptus citriodora Hook.; antagonistas, como o fungo Trichoderma sp., a levedura IA8 (UFC), e Bacillus subtilis; indutores de resistência, como o acibenzolar-S-metil, o fosfito de potássio e o ácido salicílico; e, ainda, antissépticos, como o hipoclorito de sódio (NaCLO), o dióxido de cloro e o sorbato de potássio. Os testes in vitro foram feitos em meio BDA + tetraciclina (50 µg.mL-1), nas concentrações de 5 mL, 10 mL, 15 mL, 20 mL, 25 mL e 30 mL de cada extrato; 0 µL, 25 µL, 50 µL e 100 µL de cada óleo; 0,05 g, 0,3 g e 300 µL dos indutores Bion®, ácido salicílico e fosfito de potássio, respectivamente; 0,1 g, 25 mL e 100 µL dos antissépticos sorbato de potássio, hipoclorito de sódio e dióxido de cloro, respectivamente, sendo a atividade antagônica determinada pelo método de culturas pareadas para Trichoderma sp. e pelo método do funil para a levedura IA8. A formulação com Bacillus subtilis foi testada na proporção de 100 µL/100 mL de BDA. Placas com apenas meio BDA ou o fungicida carbendazim (10 µL/100 mL) foram utilizadas como testemunhas. Os testes foram realizados à temperatura de 28°C ± 2°C e com fotoperíodo de 12h durante um período de sete dias. Em todos os casos estudados, os tratamentos foram distribuídos em delineamento inteiramente casualizado com cinco repetições. As médias foram comparadas pelo teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade. Em todas as concentrações testadas, os extratos e óleos essenciais de Lippia sidoides e Caryophillus aromaticus , assim como o ácido salicílico, o hipoclorito de sódio e o controle químico, foram efetivos, inibindo o patógeno. O fosfito de potássio e os antagonistas Trichoderma sp. e Bacilus subtilis também foram efetivos com reduções de 91,8%; 84,0% e 74,0%, respectivamente. Conclui-se que os extratos e óleos essenciais vegetais de Lippia sidoides e Caryophillus aromaticus , o ácido salicílico, o hipoclorito de sódio, fosfito e os antagonistas Trichoderma sp. e Bacillus subtilis poderão constituir-se em alternativa promissora ao controle do Colletotrichum musae.bitstream/item/69801/1/BPD12001.pd

Bacterial and microeukaryotic plankton communities in a semi-intensive aquaculture system of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax): a seasonal survey

The importance of microbial diversity and their role in the maintenance of fish health in aquaculture systems has been increasingly recognized in recent years. However, there is still a major knowledge gap regarding the ecology, composition and dynamics of microbial plankton assemblages during fish production. In this study, we aimed to investigate the seasonal dynamics and potential interactions of bacterial and microeukaryotic plankton communities in a semi-intensive aquaculture for European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) cultured together with low density of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) over a one-year period (January/2014 – November/2014). While the most abundant bacterial classes were Gammaproteobacteria, Flavobacteriia and Alphaproteobacteria; microeukaryotic communities were dominated by Ochrophyta, Chlorophyta and Ciliophora groups. Temperature and salinity were identified as significant drivers of the overall microbial community composition, which varied congruently along the seasons. However, while the dominant (more abundant) groups of bacteria occurred in the warmest months, the dominant groups of microeukaryotes occurred in the coldest months. There was also an inverse relationship between abundances of grazers and bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Overall, besides the potential effects of the abiotic parameters on the microbial plankton communities, the correlation between bacteria and microeukaryotic populations observed here may be an indication of trophic and/or metabolic interdependence between these two domains. Future studies should focus on the underlying mechanisms of this interdependence for a better understand of the impact of microeukaryotic communities on aquaculture bacterioplankton structure and function. In addition, this knowledge could be of interest in the development of microbial management strategies for aquaculture systems.publishe

Orbit determination of Transneptunian objects and Centaurs for the prediction of stellar occultations

The prediction of stellar occultations by Transneptunian objects and Centaurs is a difficult challenge that requires accuracy both in the occulted star position as for the object ephemeris. Until now, the most used method of prediction involving tens of TNOs/Centaurs was to consider a constant offset for the right ascension and for the declination with respect to a reference ephemeris. This offset is determined as the difference between the most recent observations of the TNO and the reference ephemeris. This method can be successfully applied when the offset remains constant with time. This paper presents an alternative method of prediction based on a new accurate orbit determination procedure, which uses all the available positions of the TNO from the Minor Planet Center database plus sets of new astrometric positions from unpublished observations. The orbit determination is performed through a numerical integration procedure (NIMA), in which we develop a specific weighting scheme. The NIMA method was applied for 51 selected TNOs/Centaurs. For this purpose, we have performed about 2900 new observations during 2007-2014. Using NIMA, we succeed in predicting the stellar occultations of 10 TNOs and 3 Centaurs between 2013 and 2015. By comparing the NIMA and JPL ephemerides, we highlighted the variation of the offset between them with time. Giving examples, we show that the constant offset method could not accurately predict 6 out of the 13 observed positive occultations successfully predicted by NIMA. The results indicate that NIMA is capable of efficiently refine the orbits of these bodies. Finally, we show that the astrometric positions given by positive occultations can help to further refine the orbit of the TNO and consequently the future predictions. We also provide the unpublished observations of the 51 selected TNOs and their ephemeris in a usable format by the SPICE library.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted in A&

Astrometry of the main satellites of Uranus: 18 years of observations

We determine accurate positions of the main satellites of Uranus: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Positions of Uranus, as derived from those of these satellites, are also determined. The observational period spans from 1992 to 2011. All runs were made at the Pico dos Dias Observatory, Brazil. We used the software called Platform for Reduction of Astronomical Images Automatically (PRAIA) to minimise (digital coronography) the influence of the scattered light of Uranus on the astrometric measurements and to determine accurate positions of the main satellites. The positions of Uranus were then indirectly determined by computing the mean differences between the observed and ephemeris positions of these satellites. A series of numerical filters was applied to filter out spurious data. These filters are mostly based on the comparison between the positions of Oberon with those of the other satellites and on the offsets as given by the differences between the observed and ephemeris positions of all satellites. We have, for the overall offsets of the five satellites, -29 (+/-63) mas in right ascension and -27 (+/-46) mas in declination. For the overall difference between the offsets of Oberon and those of the other satellites, we have +3 (+/-30) mas in right ascension and -2 (+/-28) mas in declination. Ephemeris positions for the satellites were determined from DE432+ura111. Comparisons using other modern ephemerides for the solar system -INPOP13c- and for the motion of the satellites -NOE-7-2013- were also made. They confirm that the largest contribution to the offsets we find comes from the motion of the barycenter of the Uranus system around the barycenter of the solar system, as given by the planetary ephemerides. Catalogues with the observed positions are provided.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figure

High nonlinear optical anisotropy of urea nanofibers

Nanofibers consisting of the optically nonlinear organic molecule urea embedded in both poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymers were produced by the electrospinning technique. The second-harmonic generation produced by aligned fiber mats of these materials displays a strong dependence on the polarization of the incident light. In PVA-urea nanofibers the effectiveness in generating of the second-harmonic light is as high as that of a pure urea powder with an average grain size of 110 μm. The results suggest that single crystalline urea nanofibers were achieved with a long-range crystalline order extending into the range of 2–4 μm with PVA as the host polymer.This work was carried out in the frame of CIENCIA-2007 program (reference UMINHO-CF06) and financially supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, PTDC/CTM/105597/2008